Plymouth Rock & the Pilgrims

by Mark Twain

Throughout America's Gilded Age, humorist and novelist Samuel Clemens, a. k. a. Mark Twain (1835-1910), was in great demand as a public speaker. This anthology, spanning the years from 1866 to 1909, collects 82 examples of Twain's best "spoken" work. Topics include American mythmaking, the Hawaiian Islands, masturbation, the art of war, New York morals, and stage fright.

Genres: Humor, Essays

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1984

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already love Mark Twain (of course), but this collection of his speeches before various groups makes him even more interesting than his writings do. I'm not sure I would want to pay him to speak to my group -- he would likely insult us, as he did the well-bred New England descendants of Mayflower pilgrims. "Scathing" is a fun word, unless you are in the audience when it is being pointed at you. Clemens is amazing; read this and you will realize that even more than you already do.

[Forked Radish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mark Twain could be an ignorant jerk at times. The first slaves were brought to America by the Portuguese not the Pilgrims. In Fact, the Pilgrims were why there was no slavery in New England.